Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Elite: dangerous

[albert]

What an incredibly stupid thing to say.

RPS are pretty renowned for not really reviewing games with general gamers in mind IMHO. It's very opinionated based on what the reviewers needs are.

In the case of Elite he reviewed v1.0 which was patched 3 times in 2 days shortly after release and it's fair to say a lot of bugs were ironed out.

So personally it does feel at times like they are only reviewing positively, games that are on their approved list.

He's about 50% too harsh on Elite based on my experience of playing this for longer than probably anyone else in dMw have so far.

[smilodon]

Smilo - I'm treating the game's current state as an opportunity to gain experience and knowledge as a lone player until all the shiny team-based add-ons appear. If they don't deliver on these I will be off. Simple.

I am having fun but on my own terms. I'm not doing the hard grind to rack-up the dosh. I'm happy to own a single ship while I learn how to fly, navigate, trade, mine, explore, fight and run away.

"Damn your eyes Sir, damn them to hell!" That's it where's my credit card......

[Chaosphere]

It is interesting that I took this review as a much more positive view of Elite than a lot of you did

Although my thoughts are along a similar line to Smilo's -

The review seems to suggest it's a great single player, go where you want, do what you want game but with a few bugs. But as a multiplayer game it sounds like a repetitive grind, with unimaginative missions and a glorified collect all the shiny ships game. That sounds pretty unapealing.

And also, like Smilo, I do still find myself intrigued enough to consider jumping in and giving it a go, especially when I see you all on TS basically every night! The only thing stopping me now is the £ 40 price tag. I don't like early access games*, and I like them even less when they have a full price tag.

*This is a huge overstatement, as I think early access is both one of the best and worst things to happen to the gaming industry in the last couple of years, but that is a discussion for another day


EDIT - Oh, and RE someone said that the review is very opinionated etc, well for me that is what I want from a review. An opinion. Games are subjective, the games I like may be entirely different to the ones you like, so when I read reviews I read reviews from many different sources, as then you get many different opinions. Sometimes you find a reviewer that shares similar tastes to you that you can perhaps give more weight to as a result, but otherwise I treat game reviews as opinions, where a group of them gathered together gives you an impression of what you may or may not like. I think trying to view any review of something so subjective as an objective piece is impossible (with the exception of the technical components - bugs, etc - but again this becomes difficult with early access and patch after patch after patch!). The best reviews don't include numbers at the bottom, it tries to place an objective label on a subjective piece of writing!

[Twyst]

Smilo - I'm treating the game's current state as an opportunity to gain experience and knowledge as a lone player until all the shiny team-based add-ons appear. If they don't deliver on these I will be off. Simple.z

I am having fun but on my own terms. I'm not doing the hard grind to rack-up the dosh. I'm happy to own a single ship while I learn how to fly, navigate, trade, mine, explore, fight and run away.

+1

In a way, because NOTHING dictates what you must have to play at the level you want to there is almost zero grind. This is totally unlike anything I've played for a while as I've been 100% in MMO's for years.
I'm currently getting maximum satisfaction because I've reached my goal of a fairly pimped out Cobra MkIII and now hold my own at most things.
I think I'm about ready to step up in the Naval ranks and start taking down generals (hopefully).

I bought this purely for the occasional single player experience whilst I can share some of the experience with like minded guys and gals on TS.

Is this a multiplayer game right now? No it's not.
But from what they've talked about so far, I'm hopeful of a satisfactory if not excellent multiplayer experience in the near future, if not there's other games which I will be playing which will hopefully fill that hole.
As of right now though, I feel that I've had my moneys worth from the game and rest is pure gravy

[smilodon]

A purely personal view to add to the thoughts and comments already expressed.

Well I gave it a fair crack and it's still mine to play if and when the game gets the extra features it desperately needs. But right now it for me is nothing other than a complete grind. I remember the original back when the idea of a free form, roaming universe without boundaries was a unique and compelling idea. That was then and this is now and sadly for Elite the world has moved on..... a very long way. There's nothing remotely unique about a boundless environment with an open ended play style. It's more the norm than the exception. A game that wants to be taken seriously needs to do a whole lot more than just be big and freeform.

When you're playing a space game then one of the key elements is going to be the ship. This is especially true when you appear to be superglued into your driving seat. You effectively become your ship in an Eve Online like way. So I'm amazed that the ships in Elite are so spectacularly dull. I'm pretty certain that I could probably design a better looking range of ships. From the inside out they are even worse. There is a single absolutely identical HUD and UI for all the ships. The interiors, or the little I can see from my seat are really very average. There really is no sense of identity, everything is the same. It's a real disappointment that in a game that never ever allows me to get out of my seat and move around... anywhere provides such poor design. That I can spend money buying paint schemes that I can't see and that I'm sure no other player is remotely interested in is rather sad as well. Elite doesn't exist in a vacuum, there are other space based games out there and Players really deserve better than the cheap, quickly knocked together bland slabs that are on offer.

Likewise the space stations. There seem to be about four or five basic designs and they are all exactly the same. There's absolutely no sense of place or of the universe being diverse and interesting. I can fly hundreds of light years to distant worlds and there isn't a single difference from where I just came from. Empire, Federation, whatever? Who cares? What's the difference? I guess as you can't actually get out of your ship and visit the station there's little point making them different. All your interaction with the station facilities is via a screen. But the devs didn't even bother to make this unique to a faction or planet or anything. Across 400 billion star systems everyone uses the exact same software to run their space stations. It's a sort of Microsoft Windows nightmare come true. Same stations, same interiors, same interface, same missions, same ships..... same everything.

Elite Dangerous appears to be a decent space dog fighting game, with a dull, uninspired, bored world tacked on, almost as an afterthought. The only thing to do is either play the spreadsheet game or take on one of a few basically cookie cutter identical missions. This makes money, money allows for bigger ships, bigger ships allows for more spreadsheets and more of the same missions....... repeat ad nauseum. There might be fun gaining reputation with different factions but on current performance I'm guessing it won't make a blind bit of difference beyond who I'm friendly with. I might go with the Federation but I'm sure my game will be exactly the same as someone who went Independant. I'm guess there is a backstory to the factions and the universe, but does anyone actually care that Emperor Ping has declared war on Chancellor Pong? Nope.

There's a chance that the player base could make a new Eve Online. They might be able to carve out areas to own, create political intrigue, begin epic wars, make and break alliances and so on. They will only be able to do that when Elite provides the tools for multiplay. So far there are none. There is no real collaborative play and no ability to form a collective identity in game. No guilds, no shared resource, no shared commerce, not even an effective communications or grouping system.The tools just aren't there.

I don't want to mention 'the other game' but Elite seems to be a a quick appetizer until the real space adventure starts. I'm pretty sure that come the end of 2015 unless Braben released an absolute shed load of extra toys and goodies Elite Dangerous will wither and die horribly as players desert it in droves to play a game that come with all the goodies from the start.

I always had my doubts about  David Braben. I thought he was in it for the quick buck rather than for any passion or love of the genre. Elite really does seem like a rushed attempt to cash in on the revitalisation of the genre before the real deal arrives. But he got my £40 so I guess he's happy.

[OldBloke]

Excellent piece, Smilo. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed.

I have enjoyed my time so far with ED but it's starting to lose me now for all the reasons you so eloquently pointed out.

[albert]

I'd give it a bit more time and join TS more, maybe we can change your mind mate. However I can see all your points but most of them I'm in a good position to disagree with, the rest I'm confident Braben will improve over time.

[vobler]

A purely personal view to add to the thoughts and comments already expressed.

Well I gave it a fair crack and it's still mine to play if and when the game gets the extra features it desperately needs. But right now it for me is nothing other than a complete grind.

Sadly I feel the same. A lot of what was laid down in the design documents (archives) are not there yet. The multiplayer stuff is what bothers me most. I feel they released it too early. I will maybe revisit in a month or two when some of the stuff we are waiting for is here, but for now it doesn't feel right for me.